Workers Aren't Buying "Car Guy's" Lies

America does not need a businessman in the White House – especially one that lies, distorts the facts and has zero credibility among the country’s leading auto manufacturers.

Mitt Romney’s deceitful ads about President Obama’s auto industry rescue running in Ohio are further proof that the GOP candidate doesn’t have any business sense or savvy. Really, this “car guy” has only demonstrated a lack of understanding about about job creation and a desire to Etch-a-Sketch away his infamous op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

First Romney told an Ohio audience that "Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China." Chrysler immediately shot down the rumor, calling it “a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.” Fiat, the Italian parent company of Chrysler, is simply opening new factories in China to make Jeeps for Chinese consumers.

Then came the utterly untrue television spot that claimed the president “sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.”

Ohio newspapers and fact checkers around the country called him a liar, which just compelled Romney to double down and expand the ad buy, making the Jeep-to-China myth a central tenant of his Ohio campaign.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne wrote to his employees, "I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. … It is inaccurate to suggest anything different." Reaffirming Jeep’s commitment to the United States, Marchionne pointed out that its Toledo Assembly Complex, where the company will be developing and producing the next generation Jeep SUV, will be adding 1,100 jobs by 2013; the Jefferson North Assembly Plant, where workers build Jeep Grand Cherokees, have created 2,000 jobs since 2009; and a Belvidere plant that builds two Jeep models have added two shifts since 2009, resulting in 2,600 new jobs.

But did Romney listen? No.

Instead his campaign cut a radio ad claiming that, "Under President Obama, GM cut 15,000 American jobs, but they are planning to double the number of cars built in China, which means 15,000 more jobs for China."

Pulled into the fray, General Motors leapt to correct the record: "We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days. No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country."

Romney fashions himself a businessman? A GM spokesman retorted, “That is absolutely bereft of any fundamental understanding of the global automotive industry.”

At least he’s made good on one campaign promise: Romney will not let fact checking constrain his bid for the White House.

Photo by Austen Hufford via Creative Commons